How much sugar will turn fats against me? page

[Mad_Fatter]

As far as I can understand, fat will make you fat in the event you eat enough sugar/carbs in order to "open up" your fat cells to fat storage by spiking your insulin.

How do I prevent this from happening? I eat 85% bars of chocolate over the course of an evening sometimes, or even fruits. Should I limit my intake to under X grams of sugar a day, and should I be eating sugary things say an hour or so before a high fat meal to let my blood sugar levels normalize a bit?

[Styrofoam Jones]

I've been wondering this too, I've heard a lot about it being bad to mix a lot of fat and carbs. Is there any truth to this? Hard to tell with all of the broscience out there. If so, how many carbs does it take?

[NativeTheory]

good thread... i wonder about this too sometimes. Am I just welcoming in a Trojan Horse when I eat fruit and nuts at the same time? Is it better to only eat fruit by itself and fatty things by themselves and not mix them at all?

[emmie]

Dr. Richard Bernstein, the diabetes guru, always advises eating no more than 10-12g carbs per meal to avoid invoking enough of an insulin response to cause problems. That's the same number that the Drs. Eades advise in Protein Power to avoid storing fat. So you might want to consider the carb count in your 'indulgences' and limit them to no more than 12g at one time.

[spakesneaker]

I don't think Mark has written anything about this, has he? Any links--?

I've heard it presented the other way--that it's best to 'blunt' the insulin response of a carbohydrate-heavy meal by adding fat to it, e.g. bread with butter.

[shadowfoot]

Mark has said, if you do eat bread, eat it with lots of butter, although I'm not sure if this is because it would help to curb your intake of bread while increasing your intake of butter, thus making the meal more primal, or if it has any basis in body fat regulation.

[chima_p]

Remember that fat storage and release is a dynamic process happening throughout your day(life) not just after a meal.

Excess energy will be stored after a meal no matter the macro ratio.

There is really nothing you can do about it.

[Sam Cree]

After being "primal" for about 3 months, I am pretty convinced that avoiding sugar and bread will cause a nice weight loss, even if you eat potatoes and rice and stuff, mainly because people use bread as the centerpiece of at least breakfast and lunch, while potatoes and rice tend not to be quite as important, except among island people. We just don't eat as much potatoes and rice as we do bread.

I didn't go primal for weight loss, but lost some anyway, and I'm pretty sure that avoiding sugar played a big part.

[Redflame]

Dr. Richard Bernstein, the diabetes guru, always advises eating no more than 10-12g carbs per meal to avoid invoking enough of an insulin response to cause problems. That's the same number that the Drs. Eades advise in Protein Power to avoid storing fat. So you might want to consider the carb count in your 'indulgences' and limit them to no more than 12g at one time.

Good Word Emmie, Thank you. I knew that, but had lost focus ----so much stuff in this itty bitty brain, gets a little jumbled at times

[tfarny]

Keeping insulin low lets fat out of the cells, it doesn't usher the energy into the cells. Fat cells collect trigs from the blood no matter what, their job is to store energy after meals. To answer the OPs question, you should avoid sugary foods and processed carbs always, not only at certain times. If I could think of a particularly bad time to eat something sweet, I'd have to say right before bed or first thing in the morning because the sleeping "fast" lowers your insulin levels the most and that's a time to burn some fat off.